The Wild Rose Board of Trustees approved the budget for the 2025-2026 school year, following a presentation from the Associate Superintendent, Business and Finance and deliberation by the Board on Tuesday, May 20. The budget includes an operating deficit of $645,476 to be covered by the division’s operating reserves. The division will be at its minimum balance for reserves. School jurisdictions are required to maintain a minimum 1 per cent operating reserve balance. Total revenue is projected at $67.5 million with expenses of $68.1 million.

Wild Rose School Division receives over 95 percent of its funding from the provincial government. Funding from Alberta Education is based on the Adjusted Enrolment Method (AEM) replacing the Weighted Moving Average (WMA) method of calculating Full Time Equivalent enrolments. The division is projecting 4,386 students to be enrolled in Kindergarten through Grade 12 in the 2025-2026 school year as compared to 4,450 at September 29, 2024. This is an overall decrease of 64 students. These enrolment numbers are based on estimates submitted to Alberta Education in January 2025. 

The majority of funding is spent on staff compensation. For 2025-26, the division allocated 244.33 full time equivalent (FTE) Teachers (excluding 2.5 held in contingency) and 90 Educational Assistants (excluding 5 held in contingency). In 2025-2026, teaching staff will decrease by approximately 6 FTE and total Educational Assistants will remain at status quo compared to 2024-2025. Based on projected student enrollment, this will allow the Board to maintain reasonable class sizes and the additional supports required for students with the greatest needs. There is a projected deficit for student transportation, therefore the division will look into the possibility of charging fees for transportation starting the 2026-27 school year.

The budget will be submitted to Alberta Education by May 31 and has been posted to the division website. 

For more information, please see the Annual Budget Report as well as a more detailed description of the budget  in the document 2025-2026 Annual Budget Report - Supplementary Information.